Vandebilt Catholic tennis thriving

Saturday

HOUMA – To say that tennis is a popular sport is an understatement at Vandebilt Catholic.

In fact, it may be one of the more popular sports on campus.

Heading into the 2008 season, Vandebilt coach Kevin Ramirez was faced with a challenge dilemma. How do you open up enough spots for 45 students interested in playing tennis?

The answer was simple – field three teams throughout the season.

Vandebilt featured a Gold team, consisting of the top players in the school, and a Blue team of the second-tier players. The final team was the junior varsity squad.After compiling a 24-1-2 overall record between the three teams, Ramirez said the three-team experiment has been a success.

“What we’ve learned from experience is that the kids need to get on the court and play,” he said. “They need to not only play but play in competitive situations.

“I don’t think this is anything different from an experience standpoint. We’ve had in the past kids that have gotten court time, but not necessarily as Vandebilt tennis players. Although it’s good for the varsity program, it’s not a whole lot different than what we’ve done in the past. This gives them more structure and it can be run through the school and the LHSAA.”

Senior McCall Walker said playing tennis is the “cool” thing to do at Vandebilt. Walker competes in singles on the Gold team.

“It’s pretty popular. It’s the cool thing to do now at school,” he said. “There are a lot of people that now play, and they didn’t play before.”

Ramirez said having two teams made scheduling a challenge at times. The Gold team played against some of the state’s top teams in preparation for the upcoming state tournament. During the season, the Gold team faced six defending state champions – St. Paul (boys’ Division I champion), St. Thomas More (boys’ Division II champion), St. Scholastica (girls’ Division II champion), E.D. White Catholic (boys’ Division III champion) and Episcopal School of Acadiana (boys’ and girls’ Division VI champions).

The Blue team, meanwhile, face area varsity teams in preparation for the future.

With more students participating, the competition is now even harder at practice.

“It’s kind of difficult because you have to keep everybody else in line,” said senior Michelle Lyons, who competes in doubles on the Gold team. “A lot more people just means that you have to work twice as hard to earn your spot.”

Scheduling for three teams is not the only challenge for Vandebilt. Finding enough courts for practice has been tough at times.

Ramirez said the 10 courts at Renaissance Health and Racquet Club quickly fill-up during the team’s practice.

“Ten courts is just not enough when you talk about running three teams and the programming we have at the club,” Ramirez said. “The only thing has been a logistics problem and just trying to maximize our court time. It’s been time consuming, but I think it will make the program better in the future.”

Ramirez said having three teams could bode well for the future of the Vandebilt tennis program. He estimates more than 60 students may try out for the team next season.

“In the past, we’ve been a victim of our own success, meaning kids that may have normally gone out for tennis understand how strong our program is, so they feel like they don’t have a chance,” he said. “I believe having a no cut policy with three teams will help those younger kids come out because they know that they will make the team and they want to play for their school.”

With the Region 3-II tennis tournament looming, Ramirez said he believes Vandebilt has a good chance to make a run at the Division II state title. The Region 3-II tournament will be held Monday and Tuesday at Renaissance.

“We know that anything can happen when you make the draw when it comes to high school tennis,” he said.

Senior Butch Reeves said he believes Vandebilt can make a deep playoff run. Reeves competes in doubles on the Gold team.

“I think we have an extremely good chance at state,” he said. “We have great player, but a lot of our competition left going to Division I or III, so we should have a really good chance.”

The Division II state tournament will be held April 28-29 at Renaissance.

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.